Validation of the propensity for angry driving scale

Problem: This study examined the validity of the Propensity for Angry Driving Scale (PADS; DePasquale, J. P., Geller, E. S., Clarke, S. W., and Littleton, L. C. (2001). Measuring road rage: Development of the Propensity for Angry Driving Scale. Journal of Safety Research, 32, 1–16) in predicting aggressive driving. Method: The PADS and the Driving Anger Scale (DAS; Deffenbacher, J. L., Oetting, E. R., and Lynch, R. S. (1994). Development of a driving anger scale. Psychological reports, 74, 83–91.) were administered to 232 college student volunteers with measures of aggressive and risky driving. Results: Convergent and discriminant validity of the PADS were supported through relationships among measures of similar constructs. The PADS significantly (p<.05) predicted moving tickets, minor accidents, aggressive driving, risky driving, and maladaptive driving anger expression, above and beyond gender, miles driven per week, and trait anger. Discussion: Findings suggest that the PADS is a useful predictor of aggressive driving and has some advantages over the DAS. Impact on Industry: The PADS is an effective predictor of aggressive driving that complements established measures like the DAS and provides researchers with another valuable tool for the assessment of aggressive driving.     

Validation of a questionnaire about the perception of occupational biohazard in Spanish companies

Objectives. The aim of this work was to develop, validate and test a new questionnaire to assess the biological risk in workers with intentional or unintentional exposure to biological agents. Methods. A questionnaire including 34 questions was developed to study the perception of workers against occupational biohazard. Content Validity Index (CVI) and Content Validity Ratio (CVR) were calculated for the analysis of content validity. A pilot study was carried out with 60 workers from 17 companies performing analysis of Cronbach's α to assess the internal consistency or reliability. Results. A total of 518 workers from 51 Spanish companies in which there is exposure to biological agents participated in the study yielding a response rate of 90%. The final questionnaire obtained a Cronbach's α > 0.759 with a stable test–retest result. The questionnaire validation demonstrates that it could be used to evaluate the biological risks and help the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases. Discussion. This study has validated the need to evaluate worker's perception against occupational risks, as well as the application of prevention methods and protective equipment. It is a first step towards developing an occupational biohazards assessment method including all the requirements set by the European Health and Safety Strategy 2013–2020.     

Best practice recommendations for scale construction in organizational research: The development and initial validation of the Character Strength Inventory (CSI)

Proper scale development and validation provide the necessary foundation to facilitate future quantitative research in the organizational sciences. Using the framework provided by the Researcher's Notebook , the purpose of this study is twofold. First, we present a modern summary of best practice procedures for scale development, reliability analysis, and validity analysis. Second, we explain and illustrate these best practice procedures by describing each procedure in the context of developing and psychometrically analyzing a new Character Strength Inventory (CSI). Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Injuries and risk-taking behaviours in Portuguese adolescents: Highlights from the health behaviour in school-aged children survey

Aim

Injuries in adolescence are an important public health problem and a major cause of morbidity and mortality in this age group. This study aimed to determine the behaviour profile associated to risk of injury and the differences between genders, region and ethnic origin.

Methods

A cross-sectional study design of a nationally representative sample of 1581 adolescents of the Portuguese Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study.

Results

An occurrence of one injury-related event in the previous year was reported by 21.4% of the respondents and 5.9% referred having more than one injury-related event. Boys reported higher frequency of those events when compared to girls, and non-Portuguese subjects referred higher frequency of events. Scoring higher in violence-related behaviour and psychosomatic complaints was associated to higher chances of referring more than one injury-related event.

Conclusion

Gender, social background and behaviour profile are factors that seem to influence the risk of injuries. This information should guide those involved in the planning of injuries prevention programs in youth.     

Occupational health and safety issues in the informal economic segment of Pakistan: a survey of construction sites

This research covers the current status of occupational health and safety (OHS)-related practices in the informal construction segment of Pakistan. Data were collected, through interviews, from 316 construction sites employing 3577 workers. The results of the study reveal that both employers and workers lack knowledge of OHS laws/standards and no practices of this nature are enacted at these construction sites. Alarmingly, work-related accidents, whenever they happen, are not given due attention and there is no formal injury-report system. The informal construction industry employs a huge portion of the informal workforce, and lack of OHS happens at tremendous human cost. These research findings may thus play their role in strengthening the case for reforms in the sector. This study, if properly utilized, may also enable employers of the sector by increasing their knowledge about OHS practices and, as a result, trying to offer safer environments for their workers.     

Too much of a good thing: Curvilinear effect of positive affect on proactive behaviors

Current organizational theory and research affirm the beneficial effects of experiencing positive affect at work. In recent years, researchers have begun to question the popular notion that the more positive affect at work, the better—that more positive affect is desirable for work‐related outcomes. In this article, we propose a rationale for why more positive affect may not be better for proactive behaviors at work. Findings from two field studies using two unique data sources demonstrate support for our hypothesis, suggesting that intermediate levels of positive affect are most beneficial for proactive behaviors. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Proactive and reactive helping: Contrasting the positive consequences of different forms of helping

Research on helping has identified positive consequences of helping for the helper, beneficiary, group, and organization. Recent research, however, raises concerns about contingencies that influence the outcomes of helping and suggests the need for a more nuanced perspective on the positive outcomes of helping. In this paper, we develop a novel theoretical perspective to address these contingencies by differentiating between proactive helping and reactive helping. Drawing from the two main theoretical frameworks, which have been used as the basis for studying helping—social exchange theory and functional motives theory—we discuss differences in the positive consequences of reactive and proactive helping for helpers, dyads, groups, and organizations. We submit that reactive helping facilitates heedful relationships, such that it creates and perpetuates social exchange norms that benefit others in the group. Conversely, we posit that proactive helping is often based on fulfilling personal needs, such that it benefits the self in terms of reputational benefits, well‐being, favorable self‐evaluations, need satisfaction, and self‐development. We discuss theoretical implications of this framework for future research on the positive consequences of helping. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of scale on the explosion of methane in air and its shockwave

Explosion experiments using premixed gas in a duct have become a significant method of investigating methane-air explosions in underground coal mines. The duct sizes are far less than that of an actual mine gallery. Whether the experimental results in a duct are applicable to analyze a methane-air explosion in a practical mine gallery needed to be investigated. This issue involves the effects of scale on a gas explosion and its shockwave in a constrained space. The commercial software package AutoReaGas, a finite element computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code suitable for gas explosions and blast problems, was used to carry out the numerical simulation for the explosion processes of a methane-air mixture in the gallery (or duct) at various scales. Based on the numerical simulation and its analysis, the effect of scale on the degree of correlation with the real situation was studied for a methane-air explosion and its shockwave in a square section gallery (or duct). This study shows that the explosion process of the methane-air mixture relates to the scales of the gallery or duct. The effect of scale decreases gradually with the distance from the space containing the methane-air mixture and the air shock wave propagation conforms approximately to the geometric similarity law in the far field where the scaled distance (ratio of the propagation distance and the height (or width) of the gallery section) is over 80.     

Development of a new scale to measure subjective career success: A mixed‐methods study

Career success is a main focus of career scholars as well as organizational stakeholders. Historically, career success has been conceptualized and measured in an objective manner, mainly as salary, rank, or number of promotions. However, the changing nature of work has also necessitated a change in the way many employees view success, adding a more subjective component. Although there has been theoretical discussion and calls to develop a comprehensive measure of subjective career success, no contemporary comprehensive quantitative measure exists. The goal of this study was to create and validate a measure of subjective career success, titled the Subjective Career Success Inventory (SCSI). The SCSI includes 24 items that address subjective career success via eight dimensions. The scale was developed and validated through four phases of data collection, beginning with interviews and focus groups, followed by item sorting tasks, then item refinement through confirmatory factor analysis, and finally convergent and discriminant validity quantitative analysis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Deflagration to detonation transition in a vapour cloud explosion in open but congested space: Large scale test

The paper reviews large scale experiments with various fuels in air where successful deflagration to detonation transition (DDT) took place. This includes a recent experiment disclosed in the Buncefield R&D program, where DDT developed in the propane/air mixture. The DDT occurred in branches of deciduous trees in a premixed stagnant mixture. An internal R&D investigation programme was initiated to better understand the phenomena. A large scale experiment in an open space with ethane air mixture is presented in the paper. The premixed mixture was ignited at the edge of the congested three-dimensional rigs which consisted of vertical and horizontal pipes. After ignition, the flame accelerated in the congestion and transitioned to detonation at the end of congestion. Stable detonation propagated through the remaining open and uncongested space.The flame acceleration process leading to DDT is scale dependent. It also depends on many parameters leading to a large investigation array and, significant cost. However, such R&D efforts aimed toward a safer plant design, i.e. the prevention of occurrence of a major accident, are a small fraction of a real accident cost.     

职业卫生监管工作实践探讨

职业卫生工作是安全生产工作的重要组成部分,是政府履行社会管理和市场监管职能的一项重要任务。做好职业卫生监管工作,对做好安全生产,维护社会稳定,促进经济社会全面发展,构建和谐社会具有十分重要的意义。本文总结了实践中的工作经验,提出了目前我国职业卫生监管工作的难点,如存在认识不足,重视不够、主体责任不落实、可操作性法规滞后、监管体制不顺等难点。根据这些难点,有针对性的提出了开展职业卫生监管工作的方法和途径,并对进一步改善和加强我国的职业卫生监管工作提出了建议。     

Postural assessment in pen-and-paper-based observational methods and their associated health effects: a review

Introduction. This review describes standardized ergonomics assessment based on pen-and-paper observational methods for assessing ergonomics risk factors. Objective. The three main objectives are to analyze published pen-and-paper observational methods, to extract and understand the risk levels of each method and to identify their associated health effects. Methodology. The authors searched scientific databases and the Internet for materials from 1970 to 2013 using the following keywords: ergo, posture, method, observational, postural angle, health effects, pain and diseases. Postural assessments of upper arms, lower arms, wrists, neck, back and legs in six pen-and-paper-based observational methods are highlighted, extracted in groups and linked with associated adverse health effects. Results. The literature reviewed showed strengths and limitations of published pen-and-paper-based observational methods in determining the work activities, risk levels and related postural angles to adverse health effects. This provided a better understanding of unsafe work postures and how to improve these postures. Conclusion. Many pen-and-paper-based observational methods have been developed. However, there are still many limitations of these methods. There is, therefore, a need to develop a new pen-and-paper-based observational method for assessing postural problems.     

某蓄水工程路基挡墙的病害分析

对某蓄水工程路基挡墙的安全性进行验证，发现抗滑移和抗倾覆均满足要求，但墙身应力超标较多，墙身不满足抗拉要求，墙身产生裂缝，强度急剧下降，抗倾覆安全系数也会降低。该路基挡墙经必要的设计修正后，取得了良好的经济效益。     

Evaluation and comparison of the Chinese policy context for safety-related psychological health in the workplace: Realities,gaps and challenges

Work-related psychological health problems have become a major challenge for occupational health and safety (OHS) management. Hard and soft policy systems could be employed to guarantee that this issue is taken seriously and solved effectively. However, in China, compared with the European Union (EU) and Australia, few experts have reviewed the policies related to this area. Thus, a comparative analysis was performed to investigate the hard and soft law policies associated with safety-related psychological health in the workplace based on approved criteria. A total of 21 policies (16 hard and 5 soft) were evaluated, and the current realities were discovered. Then, by comparing the actual situation in China with that of countries with well-developed policy systems in this area, extant gaps and future challenges were observed. The results showed that both hard and soft policies addressed the topic, but all of them had rather low scores. The policy system is far from perfect and is still in its infancy in China, and there are great gaps between China and countries with more developed systems related to this topic. Filling these gaps may involve encountering some challenges in the future. Based on the analysis, some specific suggestions are recommended to promote the policy system and improve OHS management from the perspective of psychological health related to work.     

Employee representation and occupational health and safety: the significance of Europe

This paper considers the implementation and operation of provisions for employee representation in health and safety in a number of member states of the European Union. It describes the results of two studies undertaken in seven European countries, including the UK, between 1989 and 1993. These studies compared legislative provisions for employee representation in health and safety in different countries and analysed the information available on the implementation and operation of these provisions. With regard to the coverage and implementation of legislation, the research found a similar pattern in all of the countries studied, with Britain distinguished by a number of features, most notably the very specific rights on this subject given to trade unions. However, analysis of information on operation of the provisions in all of the countries studied pointed to the strong association between trade union workplace organization and support as a powerful influence and determinant of the effectiveness of employee representation in health and safety. Taking this finding into account, the paper discusses the present and future situation in Britain with special reference to the implications of the provisions on employee representation found in the CEC Framework Directive 89/391.     

中国六溴环十二烷(HBCD)的职业环境健康风险评估

为了反映中国的六溴环十二烷(HBCD)职业健康风险状况,结合中国HBCD相关行业的生产状况,构建了6种中国的HBCD职业暴露情景,预估可能暴露于HBCD的职业人群数量为614～963人.然后利用EASE模型模拟职业暴露水平,并通过安全边际表征职业健康风险.结果表明,职业人群主要通过呼吸和皮肤途径接触HBCD,其相应的内暴露水平可达到0.07～1.63 mg/(kg·d)和0～0.84mg/(kg·d);由此可以估算职业人群总的暴露剂量达到0.07～1.80mg/(kg·d),这比普通人群对HBCD的暴露水平高3～5个数量级.风险评估表明,16％的职业人群具有反复染毒的风险,69％的职业人群具有产生生殖毒性的风险,总计职业人群中具有健康风险的人数为424.04～665.70,约占职业人群数量的70％,由此可见HBCD的职业暴露能够损害工人健康.     

浅谈英国职业安全健康细节管理

学习先进的市场经济国家职业安全卫生管理经验和方法,可以有效促进我国职业安全健康管理水平的提高。本文介绍了英国职业安全健康管理在法律法规、过程管理、现场管理、职业卫生等方面的细节表现,揭示出先进安全管理国家严谨细致的一面,为我国安全生产工作如何做好细节管理提供借鉴。     

Improving the health and safety of 911 emergency call centre agents: an evaluability assessment of a knowledge transfer strategy

A knowledge transfer (KT) strategy was implemented by the IRSST, an occupational health and safety research institute established in Québec (Canada), to improve the prevention of psychological and musculoskeletal problems among 911 emergency call centre agents. An evaluability assessment was conducted in which each aspect of the KT approach was documented systematically to determine whether the strategy had the potential to be evaluated in terms of its impact on the targeted population. A review of the literature on KT in occupational health and safety and on the evaluation of such KT programmes, along with the development of a logic model based on documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, indicated that the KT strategy was likely to have had a positive impact in the 911 emergency call centre sector. Implications for future research are discussed.     

职业健康监护分析在某金矿职业病危害预评价中的应用

在职业病危害预评价中职业健康监护分析的目的是发现易感人群,预测项目建成后可能发生的职业病情况.以某金矿职业病危害预评价为例,对类比工程、调研数据以及文献数据中的职业健康监护资料进行了分析,发现凿岩工是白指病、噪声聋、尘肺病三种职业病的易感人群,远远高出其他工种,是本项目职业病危害防护的重点;而采矿场破碎、运输工罹患尘肺病的可能性较大,矿运车司机可能会产生腰椎骨质增生和椎间盘突出,结合职业健康监护分析结果提出了有针对性的职业病危害补充控制措施,避免项目建成后职业病的发生.     

Overview of motorcycling in the United States: a national telephone survey

Objectives

Motorcycle registrations have risen in recent years. Although motorcyclist crash fatalities in 2009 were 16% lower than in 2008, they were double the number of deaths in 1997. The present study examined current motorcyclists’ travel patterns and views of motorcycle helmets and other safety topics.

Methods

Motorcycle drivers were interviewed in a national telephone survey conducted in 2009. A weighted sample of 1,606 motorcyclists resulted from adjusting for the oversampling of those younger than 40 and those in the three states without a motorcycle helmet use law (Illinois, Iowa, New Hampshire). All analyses were based on the weighted sample, which was intended to result in a nationally representative sample of motorcyclists.

Results

About one-quarter of respondents said they did not always wear helmets. Of these respondents, 57% said a law requiring helmet use would persuade them to do so, and 27% said nothing would. Ninety-four percent of respondents in states with universal helmet laws said they always ride helmeted, compared with about half of respondents in other states. About half of all respondents favored these laws. About three-quarters said they believe helmets keep riders safer, including two-thirds of respondents who oppose universal laws and almost half of drivers who rarely/never wear helmets. Drivers ages 18–29 and drivers of sport/unclad sport, sport touring, and super sport motorcycles were more likely to always wear helmets, support universal helmet laws, and believe helmets keep riders safer. About half of respondents said antilock braking systems (ABS) enhance safety and that they would get ABS on their next motorcycle. Less than one-quarter thought an airbag would protect a motorcyclist in a crash, and even fewer would consider getting one on their next motorcycle. Forty-three percent of motorcyclists said they had crashed at least once; 62% of the most recent crashes involved no vehicles besides the motorcycle. Respondents reported riding their motorcycles about 5,400 miles, on average, during the past year. Drivers ages 18–29 reported riding fewer miles, on average, than older drivers and more often rode at night and to/from work or school. Drivers of touring and sport touring motorcycles traveled more miles and took more long trips.

Conclusions

Motorcyclists’ travel patterns and views vary widely, but there are distinct patterns by driver age and motorcycle type. Drivers who believe helmets keep riders safer are more likely to always wear them, but this belief appears insufficient to motivate some drivers to wear them. However, universal helmet laws appear effective in increasing helmet use. Many drivers are receptive to purchasing ABS on their next motorcycle.

Impact on industry

States should be encouraged to enact universal helmet laws, and motorcycle manufacturers should be encouraged to offer ABS.